An event-based account of conformity: evidence from attention manipulations targeting event-file encoding and retrieval.

Abstract

Previous findings have raised doubt in whether comparable conformity effects can be obtained for information from humans and computers or other systems of little or no social importance. In the present study, we compared the impact of "other choices" (i.e. choices of another agent that did or did not match the participant's initial choices) of humans and computers on preferences of participants for one of two pictures. In Experiment 1, we found conformity effects only when the other choices came from humans. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the attention allocated to encoding picture-choice combinations by means of a secondary go/nogo task. Conformity effects were found for humans and computers if the secondary task did not require a response. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the attention allocated to retrieving picture-choice combinations, which resulted in conformity effects for all conditions. Taken altogether, our findings suggest that conformity effects can be obtained for "computerized" informational sources under attentional conditions that reduce the specificity of encoding or the selectivity of retrieving event files.